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At his heaviest, James* stepped on a scale and saw 238 pounds staring back at him. He remembers the moment with humor now, "obese, solid. Woo-hoo. Not an accomplishment I thought I'd achieve." Underneath the joke was something heavier: years of doing what he was "supposed" to do, and watching his body refuse to cooperate.
Even if you’ve never taken a GLP-1, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the term from companies promoting it as a weight-loss solution. But what is it exactly?
GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) is a hormone your body already makes and it affects things related to eating, such as appetite, blood sugar, and how full you feel. GLP-1 medications, whether in a pill or injection, mimic that hormone to affect how your body manages those things, as well as blood pressure and blood sugar. All together, GLP-1 is often used to manage or reduce weight.
A lot of people are taking GLP-1, but many others who could benefit are hesitating.
“As ubiquitous as GLP-1 it may seem, for a lot of patients there are still unknowns, stigmas, or barriers that get in the way of exploring if it’s right for them. GLP-1 is not right for everyone or every situation, but often patients are afraid to even ask.” Sujal Mandavia, Chief Medical Officer.
At Carbon, we want to help you feel confident and empowered about your health however you choose to proceed. That’s why in this blog post, we’ll share a conversation with one such patient on his situation, health goals, and why he decided GLP-1 was right for him.
* Name has been changed to protect patient privacy. This piece is drawn from a conversation with a real patient.
"For me it's always been about longevity. I want to live to 100, so it wasn’t just about a number on the scale. It was about my blood work, my blood pressure. I'd already lost close to 20 pounds through diet and exercise alone, and my blood pressure still wasn't moving. My A1C was in a prediabetes range and not moving, my cholesterol wasn’t improving enough. My doctor kept increasing my medication instead of taking me off it. What I actually wanted was to get my blood pressure, my A1C, my cholesterol all under control. A clean panel. That was the real goal."
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"I didn't want to take what felt like the easy road and just go get a prescription somewhere. I felt like I was getting real support from my primary care provider (PCP) to lower my blood pressure, A1C, and cholesterol. I'd come into appointments with my own self-tracked data, blood pressure, weight, exercise volume. He'd look at all of it and say, "You're doing great, you're doing everything right." He was in a uniquely informed position to see that my body of work wasn't matching my blood work, and that disconnect is what led him to eventually say, "You've done the work. Your numbers should be moving and they're not, so let's add a GLP-1 into the mix." I felt better working closely with someone on my overall health who landed on this as the next step and was still tracking every dose, every side effect, along the way."
"Day-to-day felt pretty similar at first, except for the "food noise," which wasn't even in my vocabulary before this. That nine-o'clock pull to wander into the kitchen for a cookie, just disappeared, fast. It got easier to say, "I'll have the sandwich, skip the fries." Physically, I actually felt better right away, leaner, lighter going upstairs, faster on my bike. People I rode with started asking what I'd changed. Emotionally it was more subtle. Life is complicated, there's always a lot going on but there was just less background noise around food, weight, and body image."
"Being faster on my bike and in the pool, for one. My sleep still isn't great, but here's the thing: years ago, my sleep study showed severe obstructive sleep apnea, dozens of events an hour, the kind of numbers that put you on the demanding end of CPAP use. My most recent sleep study, within the last three months, showed moderate sleep apnea, barely at the threshold where I even need the CPAP machine anymore. That's significant. And I'm not on any blood pressure medication anymore. My blood work is 100% clean. I got the results I’d spent years trying to achieve through diet and exercise alone after starting Zepbound."
"Honestly, nothing matters as much as that clean blood work. But there's one moment that hit me harder than any number. I was coming back from a store recently with a basket full of stuff, plus a backpack with a laptop in it, heading up the stairs to my room, and I felt myself struggling, breathing heavier than I expected. Just for grins, I got on a scale with everything, then weighed just the basket and backpack separately. About 35 pounds. I'd been walking around carrying a laundry basket and a backpack everywhere I went, every single day, without realizing it. Setting it down and feeling the difference, that's the moment that actually landed for me."
"Be willing to commit to the comprehensive changes that go along with it. Don't just rely on the shot and treat everything else as business as usual. Do it in connection with the right lifestyle. The medication isn't the plan. It's part of the plan."
If any part of James’ story sounds familiar, we’re here for you. An easy first step is a screening call with our team, free for anyone interested, to talk about whether GLP-1 might work for your health goals. And if his story raised other questions, we’re here for you too!
